Unreal
by JamieYouSayWhat
Summary: A girl from the Doctor's past shows up once more in an unexpected place, and she has a secret she's trying to keep. And along the way, Clara and the Doctor become closer.
1. Chapter 1

"I FOUND IT!" the Doctor yelled to Clara, who was clinging onto the console for dear life while the room burst with sparks. "Found what? What is it, Doctor?"

The Doctor smiled at her with eyes that never seemed to be just one color. "I found a new adventure. There is an extreme amount of time vortex stuff in that area." He pointed to the console screen which showed a map of the United States. There was a huge red glowing dot on the East Coast. "Stuff in that area? That seems a little vague," Clara pointed out. The TARDIS landed and both of them sighed of relief as the sparks that flew from every corner died down. "It's quite complicated. I tried to keep it at…your level." The Doctor flinched as if he just knew Clara was going to say a nasty remark back to him, or possible punch him in the arm, but she only rolled her eyes and started towards the TARDIS doors.

"Okay, let's me guess, aliens invading the White House? Meteors that aren't just meteors fell over New York City? Oh! How about Miami become flooded with weird, gunky, alien stuff?" Clara tossed opened the door and her face fell at what she found. "It's a…school?" The Doctor came over to look out the TARDIS and shared her disappointment. "But, that can't be right. The energy that was coming from this area was alarming."

They both turned towards each other and shook their heads. "Apparently somebody's been eating too much cafeteria food," Clara joked but the Doctor wasn't in the mood. He ran back to the console just to double check the location. Clara stood and continued to scan the area with her eyes. It was just a regular, brown, two - floored brick school. There was nothing different or special about it. A slightly dirty American flag and county flag flew in the front. The message marque that stood by the entrance to the school read, "Congratulations Kitty Wellston on your Science Fair win!"

"This is the right place. How about we go in and try to track it with this." The Doctor held up a small, black object that resembled a store scanner gun. "What are we going to do with that?" Clara asked, "Scan the alien to death?" He grouchily looked at Clara and mumbled something under his breath. They both walked from the box and the doors angrily slammed behind them. "Huh. Usually I have to pull the doors closed," The Doctor walked the few small steps back to the TARDIS and frantically pulled on the doors. "Oh, great! Just great!" Neither door would open no matter how hard the Doctor struggled to open them. Clara put her hands to her mouth and gasped. The Doctor turned towards her, ready to comfort her with his usual "we'll be okay. I'll keep you safe, I promise" speech, but that seemed to be the least of her worries. "I left my Frappiccino sitting by the pool," she moaned. "I'll buy you a new one. Really, Clara, you need to get your priorities straight." She folded her arms and began to follow the Doctor, who was walking up the crumbling, dirt path to the school. "The only reason the TARDIS would lock up like that is if it's trying to protect itself from a paradox. I can't imagine how powerful the thing in the school must be to make that happen," the Doctor said as he approached the front doors of the school. He pushed on the doors but none of them budged. "Clara, does it say pull and I'm just reading it wrong or do all doors just suddenly hate me?" She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "You have to buzz in and tell them why you're here. There not just going to let just anyone walk into a place filled with hundreds of children." The Doctor put on a, "I can't believe I didn't realize that" face and pressed the buzzer. An old woman answered the buzzer. "Can I help you," she said in a moaning "I'm not getting paid enough" voice. The Doctor turned towards Clara frantically. She jumped up and pushed the Doctor away. "Ah, yes," she tried her best American accent, "We're here to pick up a student. She has an uh, Doctor's appointment. Yes, a Doctor's appointment."

"Really?" the Doctor mouthed. They both silently laughed until the front doors of the school opened with a sharp click. The Doctor pulled open a door and offered the entrance to Clara. "After you." She did the nicest curtsey she could do in her tight skirt and continued into the school. As soon as they stepped inside the buzzer lady motioned for them to come into the main office and sign in. "Gosh, someone doesn't want us to be in here," Clara whispered to the Doctor as they trudged into the cramped main office that occupied only a small woman who was holding out a pen and clipboard. "Will the student be returning later today?" The lady whose name tag read "Bertie Foster" squinted at both of them. "Doubt it." The doctor replied, "She needs to get her Shingles vaccine. You can never get that too early!" Bertie gave them both a horrified look and Clara awkwardly laughed until the Doctor finished signing in.

"Um, I have to use the bathroom before you call her up. My wife here does to. Can you just excuse us for a second?" the Doctor pulled Clara along to the nearest corner. "Shingles vaccine? Really? Couldn't have been Flu or something?" The Doctor gave Clara a judging look them whipped his scanner gun out from his coat pocket. "Now, we really have an easy job from here on. All we need to do is let this lead us to the source of energy and we got ourselves an alien, or whatever it is." He hardly finished his sentence before the scanner started beeping off like crazy. "WHAT THE-?" He began running around in circles trying to figure out what was causing all the commotion. Clara only leaned against the cold wall and watched in amusement as he raced around. "You know, Doctor, you look really cute when you're all confused." He literally froze right where he was and turned towards her, but she was staring up at the celling, possibly regretting the onetime she said what she felt about him. He took in a deep breath and started running around again, only this time he kept stopping and staring at Clara, who always seemed to be looking in some other direction.

Suddenly, the scanner started short circuiting. The Doctor quickly let go of it and watched it crash to the ground right at the feet of a small brown-haired girl who looked about thirteen. As soon as the girl spotted the Doctor and Clara her face flooded with panic.

"I told them you were real, but they thought I was crazy," she said.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Who are you?" The Doctor demanded. "You don't recognize me?" she asked, "Even when I tell you that I'm that little girl who could say the names of both you and your companion before you told me your names. That was back of course when your hair was a lot less floppy and your companion was a little more, well, blonde." Clara crossed her arms but was unsure if she was just insulted or not. "Kitty?" the Doctor asked. She bowed politely and replied, "At your service, Doctor and Clara Oswald." Clara gasped loudly at the sound of her name. "What? You never thought I would come back? You did take me traveling with you, Doctor, even though it was only twice," Kitty told. "That makes a lot of sense," the Doctor explained, "This thing should track down anyone and anything that's been through the Time Vortex. After someone travels with me, I usually hack into this thing and make them invisible to the scanner. But every once in a while I forget to and this thing goes whack!" Kitty shrugged her shoulders and looked a little sad that she was forgotten.

"Well, now," the Doctor interrupted, "We said we were leaving with a child and it would seem very suspicious if we don't leave with one." The Doctor turned to Kitty and smiled. "Ready for another trip, Kitty?"

Clara helped Kitty take all her stuff and shove it into her backpack that was covered with a thin layer of dirt. As they all walked out, the office lady gave them a threatening look, but Kitty only winked at her as they went out the doors. "So, where would you like to go?" Clara smiled and replied, "I've always wanted to see 1800's London." "No, I meant Kitty. You always get to pick where we go, Clara. Learn to share! Anyway, why would you want to go there? It's not um, original enough."

Clara remained silent for the rest of the way back to the TARDIS. And even after tracing the energy back to Kitty, and blocking her on the scanner, the TARDIS still refused to open no matter what. "Oh come on Sexy, you can do it," the Doctor shouted. "I highly doubt I can do it. I can hardly open a pickle jar, let alone a TARDIS," Clara smirked. "I wasn't talking to- oh, never mind…"

This whole time, Kitty only kept her mouth closed and continually wrung her hands. She really seemed to be mysterious. "It's not going to open, Doctor. I-I can't tell you why, but it's not going to open," Kitty told nervously. "You really seem to know what's going on Kitty. Are you not telling me something," the Doctor bent down to her and looked her right in her brown eyes. She scrunched her brow and attempted to look in another direction. "Well, then," he said, "if you're not going to tell me what's going on I'm guessing we're just going to find out ourselves. Clara, how's getting a coffee sound?" The Doctor mocked Kitty, "You don't get any coffee."

Luckily there was a small, hipster coffee shop just down the block from the school. Kitty hung her head low as people stared in awe at the Doctor and Clara, who were playfully holding hands as they walked. "Are these people just **really** against public signs of affection or something," Clara whispered to Kitty. "Yeah, somethin' like that or whatever," Kitty mumbled while kicking a tiny stone down the long street, only looking up to make sure she wouldn't run into a pole. She lagged behind the couple, skidding to a stop when they began to approach the cutesy café. "Uh, maybe you guys shouldn't go in there. The people are usually very unwelcoming to non-regulars," Kitty made up on the spot. She knew the people in that shop would know exactly who the Doctor and Clara were. "Ya know, I really don't care at this point," Clara pointed out. Kitty fought back a smile when she noticed they still hadn't let go of each other's hands. She kicked the stone on final time and watched as it fell slowly down the nearest storm drain, letting the leftover rain water carry it down the hole.

It was almost like a scene from a Western. The trio burst through the doors of the coffeehouse and everyone put down their drinks, stopped talking, and stared at the newcomers. "Now I see what you were saying about them not being too warm and fuzzy," the Doctor mumbled. Kitty pulled out two pairs of sunglasses from her beaten up backpack and shoved them in the Doctor's non-Clara hand. He put them on and Clara did the same. They both silently giggled when they noticed they were both wearing vomit green shutter shades than were sliding off both their faces. A little girl who looked about five came up to the Doctor and tugged on his jacket. "Doctor, take those silly glasses off! I like the bowtie more!"

The Doctor stood there speechless. He slowly leaned down and grabbed the little girl's hands. "How do you know who I am?"

The little girl giggled and said, "Because you're in my TV, silly!" The Doctor turned to see Kitty slowly backing out of the shop in fear. Clara also took a stand. "But how is he in your TV?" The little girl grinned even bigger. "You're in my TV, too, Clara. You're on my TV every Saturday on channel one fourteen!"

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Nobody even dared to breathe.

As if that little girl with rosy cheeks and curly pigtails pressed a pause button which froze the whole room. One powerful word from the Doctor sent a crack through the room and let life continue.

"KITTY?!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"You are not in the right universe…," Kitty explained, "You aren't real. You guys are characters thought up by TV writers." Clara looked as if she would cry. "I'm not real?" She slowly took of her glasses and her words continued to get softer and softer. "I've never been real?"

"No, no, Clara," the Doctor grabbed Clara's shoulders, "You're very real. This is a different universe. The paradox that the TARDIS didn't like is that the TARDIS' existence was being questioned." There is always going to be a parallel universe where the unthinkable is real but I want you to know that you, Clara Oswald, you are real. Even if you aren't real here you are still very real to me." She meaningfully embraced him. He stoked her hair as she sniffled tears into his shoulder.

Kitty awkwardly stood there, half feeling uncomfortable and half wishing the couple in front of her would kiss already. "So," Kitty interrupted, "How are you guys gonna get back home?" They pulled apart and began to think of ways to return to their universe. "Wait! I want to show you something before you go, but you might want to keep your glasses on."

Just across the busy street there was a small little knick knack shop. Usually it hardly ever got any visitors except for the occasional person who believed it was a greeting card shop. After seeing rows upon rows of odds and ends they would walk out with their head hung in despair. But Kitty loved the shop more than anyone else, and she was on a first name basis with the shop owners. A silver bell on the door rang as they trudged into the store. A twenty-something girl stood behind the checkout counter with a smile on her face. "Glad to see you've come back! Did you come to see the Dalek ice cubes trays I called you about?" Clara and the Doctor's faces went blank. "Um, not today. I'm just showing some friends around." Kitty motioned to her friends and the cashier nodded in agreement. Kitty knew about every display in the store. She had made her own little hangout in the far back, which consisted of a tattered bean bag, a fuchsia shag rug, stacks of books, Christmas lights, several half-full bags of chips, and hundreds of papers and pencils littering the floor with no order.

The Doctor jumped back as he nearly stepped on a large pile of drawings that were just thrown on the floor. He carefully bent down and picked up a big stack, but his eyes grew wide and he quickly dropped them, letting them float to the floor in an even bigger mess. "How?"

These were pictures of the Doctor's past. There was a Time War scene, a crudely drawn Seal of Rassilon, a blue sketch of the TARDIS flying through space, and more. The main thing the Doctor noticed was the drawings were all perfect. Not perfect by the artistic skills, but perfect as in each detail was included exactly. And every single picture was signed with Gallifreyan. The Doctor eyed each circle and swoop in the letters. "This is your name, isn't it?"

Kitty nodded silently and looked at her own work. "Okay, I want to show you something else," she whispered, with a bit of nervousness in her voice. She walked toward the middle of the shop, and Clara and the Doctor automatically followed. "This might be kind of hard for you guys. Sorry 'bout that."

Shelves were lined with objects. The Doctor couldn't believe that they were there, so he could only process them as objects, because it was too hard to understand. There were plastic sonic screwdrivers, t-shirts with the TARDIS on them, books about made-up adventures he apparently had but never really happened, and more. Shelf after shelf, row after row, of the impossible. "How about we trade, you'll help me understand something if I help you understand."

"Were you trying to find a ghost that wasn't really a ghost in the 1970's recently? As in, you've gone nowhere else since then, besides here of course.

"Yes, that's right. Now for my question."

Clara blurt out before the Doctor could continue.

"What do we do now?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

They all stood there, not talking or even looking at each other. All of them found interesting cracks in the floor and stared at them, wishing that this wasn't real. If only, really, this wasn't real. Without any warning, Clara jumped and made a mad dash for the door, leaving Kitty and the Doctor staring at each other, puzzled at her sudden burst of energy. It took both of them a second to realize they should probably _follow her._ They madly ran out and continued down the street, making wild guesses at where she might have made turns in the beat-up roads. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Clara, hunched over and trying to catch her breath on the sidewalk.

Both of the halted, and Clara motioned for them to come closer. "I…tried to…run back…to…TARDIS…gahhhhh." Somewhere along the way of her mad dash to freedom, Clara's glasses had fallen off her small nose and got lost in the surrounding bushes that lined the streets, and the Doctor's glasses had done just the same. Before anyone could try to make sense of Clara's actions, a clique of teenage girls rounded the corner. Their faces went blank and they spotted the out-of-breath group standing vulnerable on the sidewalk. It was a staring showdown until one of the girls in the group decided to break the silence. "OH MY GOD IT'S MATT SMITH!" Immediately, the clique of girls began screaming and crying their thoughts out into the afternoon air. "I love him, OMG" and the occasional high pitched scream rung out. The Doctor stood motionless, only moving to ask Kitty, "Are they talking about me." Kitty pursed her lips. "Um, well…yes…" He sighed heavily. "Ah."

Clara tried hard not to laugh. Still slightly out of breath, she joked, "Look, lucky you. Hormone raged fangirls? Hell yes!" The girls huddled in a group, pointing at Clara and jumping up and down. "It's Jenna-Louise Coleman!" The Doctor couldn't hold in his laughter as Clara crossed her arms and scowled. "Oh, lucky you, eh," the Doctor teased. "I feel as though running wouldn't be the best choice, maybe just stand here and they'll lose interest," he weakly suggested. "I don't see them goin' anywhere," Clara shot back. "Maybe we should go near them, you know, just get it over with?" All three pondered, wondering if their plan would actually work. They all eventually nodded, and then began to walk toward the giggling girls. "Oooo, look. They must be filming! They're wearing their costumes," a blonde girl pointed out. The Doctor and Clara automatically looked down, wondering how they looked on a small box in someone's living room.

The girl then approached the Doctor, and held out a picture with "Matt Smith" on the front and a neon green sharpie. "Mmmm, I've got even a bigger chin in 'real life,'" he muttered as he chicken scratched some letters onto the face of his other-universe clone. "Now, um, ladies. I would love to stay and chat but all us lot have got to do some 'filming', if didn't mind." Without waiting for an answer the Doctor, Clara, and Kitty all turned and jogged off, eventually checking behind them to make sure they weren't being followed. "While we're trying to figure this out," Kitty suggested, "Would you two like to come to my house and get some coffee?"

Kitty lived nearly right down the street. Her white house had tendril vines creeping up the rainspouts, and half-dead flowers in dirty pots leading up to the small front porch. Kitty took a key out of the backpack she'd had on and slowly opened up the door, then let her guests in. The Doctor and Clara looked around, surprised by the random clutter that was everywhere. "Have you got a mum, or dad," Clara asked, struck by the fact that they would possibly allow this? "Nah," Kitty answered, with a sad quiver in her voice, "Never met 'em. Or at least can't remember them. They died when I was little. I got put up for adoption, but no one ever adopted me. Suddenly out of nowhere, there comes some 'long lost sister' who I never knew about. She had already grown and moved out by the time my parents died, so I grew up not knowing about her. She's hardly ever home now, with workin' and stuff."

Clara looked away from Kitty, not wanting to see the obvious tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes. "You guys can go make yourselves at home in the living room and I'll get coffee, but DO NOT turn on the TV, or use the laptop, you hear me? I don't want you guys getting your future changed, or something." Kitty scurried into the kitchen as the Doctor and Clara neatly sat on the couch, unknowing of what to do. "You wanna turn on the TV and find ourselves on there," the Doctor dared, the tone of his voice sounding that of a five year olds. "I thought you'd never ask," Clara said, groping for the TV controller. It was hiding under the couch.

Controller in hand, Clara promptly turned on the TV. Both of them gasped.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"I really thought this was a joke. I truly did. Or maybe this is a horrible dream? This is a horrible dream, right, Doctor? I drank some bad milk from the TARDIS' kitchen or something?" Clara continued to make excuses of why she was on the Television. Because she just couldn't understand why, and neither could the Doctor. "I bumped my head on the console. I passed out from lack of air. I actually ate one of my soufflés. I-"

"STOP IT," the Doctor interrupted, without even turning away from the screen. "What are you guys doing in there?" Kitty rushed in and dropped the coffee mug in her hand, causing the hot liquid to spill all over the already stained rug. "I gave you one rule! Why would you even try to turn on the TV? This is your life we are talking about!" Kitty stole the controller out of Clara hands and checked the listing. "Oh, of course. Of course today there had to be a Doctor Who marathon on," Kitty angrily mumbled just loud enough for the Doctor to hear as she turned off the box. "So this wasn't a joke? It can't be. I just saw Clara fighting off Wi-Fi monsters, and that really happened. But here…that's just fiction. It's just a story that came from someone's dreams. **We** are just a story that came from someone's dreams."

"You said yourself, Doctor. 'We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one." Kitty was pale, and scared looking. "But this isn't the end," the Doctor shouted, causing Clara to pull her arms close to her body, "This story isn't done yet! But it seems that here, it never even started." The tears that Kitty was holding in began to stream down her face, trying to wash out that day's events. Clara stood up and hugged Kitty, whispering words into her ear as she calmed the little girl down. Kitty nodded, sniffled, and stated, "I'm going to get you guys home. You don't belong here."


End file.
